The present invention relates to an arrangement for timing, i.e. setting, programmable fuses in cartridges which are already loaded in the gun barrel of a weapon and to ammunition for use with the timing arrangement.
Devices or arrangements for setting the timing of cartridges having programmable fuses and disposed in a gun barrel are known. In the case of transmission by wire, a setting signal is customarily fed by wire from the fire control (tank gunner) to the fuse disposed in the cartridge (multi-purpose propelling charge fuse MTA) to a direct electrical central contact in the base of the cartridge via a fixed contact disposed at an appropriate location in the breech of the weapon. The drawback here is that powder vapor deposits or the like may lead to difficulties in making contact.
In the case of wireless transmission, the fuse is set by means of optical or electronic transmit/receive devices In this connection, U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,815, for example, discloses an arrangement for transmitting a setting pulse by means of a microwave field in the gun barrel. In this arrangement, the fuse disposed in the tip of the projectile is provided with an appropriate antenna and a microwave transmitter connected with an input device is provided in the muzzle region of the gun barrel.
Here again, during rapid sequence fire, powder vapors or great fluctuations in temperature may cause interference with transmission. Moreover, the transmitting unit opening into the gun barrel must be very robust and pressure resistant; it requires an expensive type of microwave cable lead and coupling members at the gun barrel and must of course be disassembled or exchanged any time a gun barrel is exchanged.
Federal Republic of Germany No. DE-OS 3,307,785, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,013 also discloses a method and an apparatus for setting a projectile fuse in which data carrier pulses are transmitted in a wireless mode by means of high frequency (induction current) or by means of light pulses over an optical transmission path. For this purpose, a transmission unit (coil or optical conductor) is integrated into the projectile body when it is disposed in the gun barrel and the projectile itself is provided with an annular circumferential (electrical or optical) receiving system in its center region. The transmitting unit in the barrel is here likewise subjected to high pressures and high temperatures and to uncontrollable soiling due to erosion, deposits, etc.